The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present (Kindle Edition) newly tagged "photography"

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"In conversation with Paul Holdengräber, Eric Kandel will discuss the book already praised by Oliver Sacks as 'a tour-de-force that sets the stage for a twenty-first century understanding of the human mind' in all its richness and diversity."
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My relation with the Viennese milieu started with my father telling me about the dream city, the reincarnation of late antiquity Alexandria, where I was born after WWII. He took his postgraduate studies in Vienna University before it was annexed by Hitler. Sam, my younger brother was fascinated with Klimt, few of his frescos still hanging on my house walls. But I was a fan of Mozart and Freud, and later I encountered the magical worlds of Dr. Kandell; thanks to the intellectual tours of Charlie Rose.

At the turn of the nineteenth century, Vienna, the pride of the Austrio-Hungarian Empire - was considered the cultural capital of Europe, by my dad and many, with its unique atmosphere and sophisticated charm. Vienna embraced a versatile mix of musicians, scientists and artists, who met in cafes and spent the evenings in sparkling salons, or gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held to amuse one another and enjoy fine taste and broaden their knowledge through conversation.

They used liberal discussions, of novel ideas that may have led to inventive conclusions, with influential results in psychology, brain science, and innovation of literature, and art. Sigmund Freud, Gustav Klimt, among many others began exploring a charming new territory: the then mystical unconscious. The School of Medicine in Vienna University paved the way to break through of modernity, once its realization was revealed, that truth lies hidden beneath the surface of reality, which inspired and enhanced a wide spectrum of pioneers allover Europe.

That principle was the motivation behind Sigmund Freud who shocked the world with his revelations of our everyday unconscious erotic desires and aggressive reactions, disguised in symbols, and repressed into dreams. Schnitzler even discussed the taboo of women's desires within their repressed sexuality in his novels. Klimt, Kokoschka, and Schiele responded by creating, what was startlingly mindful, and honestly portraying that unconscious desire, high anxiety, and animal lust.

In his book The Age of Insight, Nobel Prize laureate, the gifted neuro-psychiatrist Eric Kandel recovers back to memory these crucial times, at the eruption of the Modern age, and a brand new simulation for the human brain, creativity initiated and dramatically realized. The story is dramatized and told by the inspiring Troubadour around the inventive genius of 1900 Vienna. Freud, Klimt, and the whole bunch spear headed by their School of Medicine, and how they, in turn, galvanized the pioneers of Art History into modern historiography?

In "The Age of Insight, wonderfully written by professor Kandel, one of the pioneers of creative scientific thinking, at least in his overlapping domains, exposing these Viennese innovators under today's scientific tools of examination, from Cat scan to ultra sound in an effort to expose and frame the modern era art of Klimt, et al, reflecting on its roots in the thought of Freud and school. He utilizes an enhancement in the leadership of an intellectual enquiry that began in Vienna 1900. Very well researched, and artfully illustrated. This is an extraordinarily amazing work from a celebrated leader in neuroscience whose miracle is creating the time of this encyclical essay.